From That Moment
by yuialex
Summary: This is a story inspired by Odagiri Ryus feelings for Yankumi before and during the Gokusen movie from 2009. Now Betaed.


AN: I was watching the Gokusen movie and thought there was a lot of signs of love between Odagiri and Yankumi (especially from Odagiris point of view). Because of the I began wondering why almost no one had written about this brilliant couple. This is my story dedicated to this relationship. If someone would like to beta it, please contact me. It's been some years since the last time I wrote something in english so please be gentle.  
Thanks to Serena B for the beta job!

**From That Moment**

During the last of my high school years she was my guide, not just as a teacher, but almost like a parent of a friend.  
She helped me and my friends in a lot of ways during our time as her students. After graduation everything changed. She was given a new class and my friends and I had to make our own choices in life. When I was given the opportunity to design my own life I made it with her in my mind.  
Unintentionally, I began planning my future as if she would take part in it. Even if she would not be around me on a daily basis, I wanted her to change her view of me.  
No longer would I be viewed as a troubled student she had to help during fights, but as a young man worthy of her respect. To do so I had to become something she respected. After a quick discussion with myself I decided to become a teacher. A teacher was someone she could respect and if I worked in the same profession as her she would still be a part of me, even if it there existed not a physical connection.  
My plan was not perfect, to be honest it had a lot of faults. But, I needed to do something for her in return for all the guidance; something to show her my respect. With my grades I hardly thought I even had a chance of getting accepted in the teacher's course in collage. Lucky for me, grades was not the only criteria we were asked to hand in during the application process. We were also given an assignment in which we were supposed to deliver a paper as to why we wanted to become a teacher. I knew this was my only shot at acceptance so I wrote and rewrote the paper more times than I care to remember. Even if I wanted to keep it professional, it was impossible to write it without mention of Yankumi.  
To be honest the whole paper was almost an essay dedicated to Yankumi. About how she changed and inspired me, and made me the man I am today.  
When I delivered it I was more afraid that the board of directors would send her a copy than of them rejecting me. It's funny to think how much her opinion mattered to me. Even if she wasn't there, she was still in my head correcting me and helping me through difficult times.  
As time went by it seemed that someone up there liked me because a month later I found a letter in my mailbox stating that I, Odagiri Ryuu, was accepted as a student at Haiko University for the next semester.  
To put it mildly, everyone had been shocked, myself most of all. So much, in fact, that I carried the letter around with me so that I could read it when I began doubting this opportunity. Today that letter is inside a glass frame on my bedroom wall.  
During my time in college I chose my classes after those she taught. In the beginning she haunted my soul and mind. As time went by my focus om her began shifting from making her proud of me, to something I myself at that time could not define.

During my schooling we were to have a practical period as teachers. As soon as the assignment was given out I knew where I wanted to go, not so much as the particular school, but I knew I wanted to work with Yankumi. The day as we were given the assignment I began calling my former classmates to find out if anyone knew at what school Yankumi was teaching. Again someone up there liked me because Tsuchiya knew the answer. The next day I contacted my teacher and asked permission to teach at Akado High School. The school had, as expected, a bad reputation. Getting a position there was, to be honest, one of the easiest things I did during my years away from Yankumi.

I had to question my feelings for her a lot during my time with her as a teacher in training, but nothing prepared me for what happened to her during her revealing of who and what Kurose Kentaro was.  
The men surrounding her, fighting her, and finally attacking her with weapons. I couldn't take it. I had to help her, and I did so at some extent. Unfortunately, one of the guys grabbed me and threatened to use a knife on me if she didn't stop fighting.  
Watching her take the beating for me was one of the worst moments of my life. She risked herself for me. Even if she's older than me, a member of the yakuza, and my former teacher, she was still a woman I respected.  
I began yelling and begging for her to keep on fighting, but she just took the beating from those men. It was breaking my heart. Luckily for my heart a diversion in the form of a full class of Yankumi's former students barged into the room demanding that the bodyguards remove their hands from their teacher. During this confusion I took the opportunity to begin fighting the man holding me. I won, and while holding the other man prisoner, I yelled out, rather outrageously, what I was feeling at that moment. "Yankumi taught us to fight to protect what we cherish! That's why we'll fight you to protect her!" After revealing my feelings I threw the man down and went to join the rest of her former students who were making their way toward Yankumi and her attackers.  
When she ordered us not to help her during her fight with Kentaro's bodyguards I clenched my hand into a fist so hard that my nails ripped my skin inside my palm.  
It was agonizing. As if this was not enough for my loudly beating heart, Kentaro pulled out a gun after she had beaten those unworthy men. When he pointed the gun at Yankumi I finally began to understand my feelings for this unique woman.  
After that moment I knew that respect was not the only feeling I had for Yankumi. Feelings of dread, despair and denial swirled around inside my head during those agonizing minutes.

As if I could not control it, my brain began analyzing those feelings. Almost as fast as the feelings came the conclusions followed. I was at petrified at that moment, not just because of the gun pointed straight at Yankumi, but what would happen to me if she was shot.  
What if she died?  
She had been my focus in life ever since she had begun pestering about coming back to school when I had decided to drop out and work for a group of wanna be yakuza.  
It might sound egotistical, but I couldn't stop thinking about how my life would be without her. Even if I hadn't seen her that much since graduation, the knowledge that she existed in this world had been enough for me. It should had been enough for me, especially when I considered the age difference and the fact that she was my ex high school teacher.  
She had told me, and a lot of other former students, that those who had graduated were still her students. Before this episode that would had been enough for me, but now, now I wanted more.  
Fortunately, with one of her powerful speeches Yankumi managed to persuade Kentaro into lowering the gun. When that happened I could finally breathe freely again.

From that terrifying moment with the gun I decided that I would not let anything stop me from letting Yankumi know about my love for her. For it was love, I was certain of that, and now my main focus in life was to make Yankumi love me back. With this new goal, I began making a new plan. Only this time it had to be perfect, because Yankumi deserved nothing less.

END

*In Norway we are accepted into university for our gradings in lower level of schooling, and not the testing for individual schools, since I'm norweegian I used this form for mersurment.  
AN: Hope you liked this story, and that it inspired you to write more Odagiri/Yankumi stories.  
Please review.  
I wanna read more of them... (^_^)V


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